NY TImes Bashing: Murdoch / Church Bashing: Vouchers

[NashVegas]

Kinda looks like an SAT question, doesn't it?

The NY Times has a lot in common with the Roman Catholic Church this summer. When Jayson Blair got outted, Rupert Murdoch and whomever the hell is backing him took advantage of the situation to draw the blood of the "paper of record." We've been hearing for months, and the last two year in general, about what a Liberal rag the NYT is.

Those of us who are more acquainted with the Times see right through the argument; we know the Times is, if anything, conservative but old-style conservative. Judith Miller's articles and the 'rah rah US' we saw about the Iraqi war from the moment Jessica Lynch was pulled out.

But we make the mistake in attributing the attempted diminishing of the Times as being purely ideological-driven. The real fact of the matter is, if the Times loses circulation, the Murdoch and Moon empires stand to benefit financially. If you lose faith in the Times, you need to get your news elsewhere, don't you?

Same thing when you see ABC, BBC, CBS, et al, get bashed. The parrot-heads who sit next to you at work are merely the footsoldiers of the strategists, just like our men and women in Iraq are carrying out the strategies of Cheney & PNAC.

However, this does not diminish the fact the NYT screwed up big time in keeping Blair on the payroll, and putting Judith Miller's Chalabi-gotten tripe on the front page. I'll go on the record as saying the NYT is not my favorite news source, not by a long shot. To me they have *mostly* been the Paper of the Government's Record. But of the stories they do cover, I appreciate their analysis and thoroughness. And like any institution, they ARE open to criticism.

The Catholic Church is open to criticism. Like the Times, they kept screw-ups who interfered with Church credibility on the payroll. And for a good long time, if a certain document is to be believed, they threatened to excommunicate anyone willing to publicly out their Jayson Blairs.

But it's important to keep in perspective, to try to discern the motivation of those who gleefully attack Rome. Some do it for the fun of it; some do it out of well-justifed bitterness (*raises hand*), some do it for attempted ideological gains, and some are the Rupert Murdochs who stand to gain financially.

No one stands to be the Church's Murdoch more than those who are backing vouchers.

"But Crisco," ya say, "the Church stands to gain, too, from vouchers!" Well, not if Mom & Pop are concerned enough about Buffy & Jody's sexual health, they aren't.

There's a fascinating little chart about halfway down this page, from the Marin School's site:

http://www.nbms.org/news/education1.html




Catholic School enrollment went down by about 8%, while non-secatarian went up by about the same amount. Meantime, look who's enrollment JUMPED by 50%. 15% is a relatively small piece of the pie, compared to the Catholic parochials nearly 50%. But a 50% increase in 10 years is nothing to sneeze at. That's quite a bit of taxpayer money going to schools that pay just as badly as Catholic schools and put about the same money into athletic equipment and other extracurricular programs.

And who are they, if not Rupert Murdoch's little footsoldiers (whether they are aware of it or not)?